Abstract
Utilization of visible light by photosensitization of semiconductor photocatalysts via surface attachment of small colorless organic pollutants (COP) is an effective way to stimulate their photocatalytic degradation. Herein, by means of the spectroscopic, photoelectrochemical, spectroelectrochemical, and photocatalytic studies combined with the DFT+D molecular modeling, we show how disubstituted benzene derivatives, like catechol (CAT), salicylic acid (SAL), phthalic acid (PTA), and terephthalic acid (TPA), can tune the photocatalytic properties of rutile nanorods with the dominant (110) termination. We elucidated in a systematic way the COP ligand-binding configurations, the alignment of energy levels, and the charge-transfer pathways from the organic admolecules to the titania substrate. The pDOS structures of the COP@r-TiO2(110) assemblies were interpreted in terms of electronic interactions between the titania photocatalyst and the COP adspecies. It was shown that the appearance of additional states w...
Published Version
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